In a mix of operations in the past week that included undercover drug buys, drug sweeps and reverse prostitution stings, deputies arrested 95 mid- and street-level drug dealers, prostitutes and "johns" in the latest phase of Sheriff Ken Jenne's campaign to rid areas under his jurisdiction of drug activity and prostitution.

Of those arrests, 46 were drug-related, 10 were suspected prostitutes and 39 were charged with soliciting a prostitute. The arrests included a Palm Beach County sheriff's internal affairs investigator jailed last Friday for offering an undercover officer $25 for sex, the Sheriff's Office said.

Operation START, or Sheriff's Targeted Anti-Crime Response Team, began in Dania Beach in fall 2000 and includes partnerships among Sheriff's Officeand the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Agency , the Broward State Attorney's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"We started out with 45 arrests in Modello Park, and that was just a year ago. This is a continuing enterprise on our part," Jenne said on Friday. "This is a continuing battle to improve the neighborhood and rid that neighborhood of drug sales and rid it of prostitution."

The latest arrests bring Operation START's total arrests to 648 drug and prostitution arrests in Dania Beach, 615 in Pompano Beach and 306 in unincorporated Broward County, Jenne said.

Dania Beach Mayor Pat Flury said the flood of people in Dania Beach buying drugs come from other cities such as Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale.

"This puts everybody on notice, if you want to do drugs, you better go somewhere else," said Flury. "The party is over in Dania."

Flury said it would be some time before the community realizes the impact of the arrests.

"Everybody's been talking about it. It's about time to start doing something about it because it's been crazy around here lately," Odeh said. "We know most of the people here on a personal level. The problems start when people come from outside and start doing things."

Others in the area have mixed feelings about the operation. Janet Jones, 47, who lives along Northwest 6th Avenue where patrolling has been heavy, thinks the escalated police presence borders on harassment.

"For the last two to three days, it's been all day and all night," Jones said. "The only difference is that the people are missing."

Dania Beach City Manager Ivan Pato said residents in the Northwest community have been living with a severe drug problem in their neighborhood for years. "Enforcement alone is not the answer," Pato said. "Clearly, making this number of arrests tells two stories. A lot of people out there are committing crimes, and arrests by themselves doesn't work."

Pato said education, awareness and community involvement are other methods that need to be reinforced with residents. He said there have been other busts of this size in the past, but this time around, higher-level drug dealers will face stiffer penalties and will not be back on the streets soon.

Vicky Agnew can be reached at vagnew@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7922.